Early Risers.

[New Haven Neil]

Morning.

 

From a shadow of the former NHN, 2 1/2 stone lighter than six months ago.  No loony dieting, just reduction (elimination!)  of complex carbohydrates - bread, pasta, rice and potatoes basically.  From 'aagh' figures to BP 116/70, HbA1c 34, and still feel like, er, crepe.  Ah well. Better than losing sight and extremities.

 

We had red rain here last night, submarines were in use on roads, but this morning it is dry and very very dull, no sign of a sunrise, just greyrise.

 

As for sleep, I once fell asleep in a motorships engineroom, one of the nosiest environments you can imagine, although alcohol may have played a part - hard drinking ship!  Not drunk on watch. but hungover for sure.  Nowadays I sleep worse than Q.  Hip arthritis and the remains of my left foot to blame.

 

 

[BoD]

Morning all.

 

It is bright and sunny here although we had a good bit rain yesterday evening.

 

Re Hb1Ac  I’ve had quite a good year and a half since being first diagnosed.  It was up to 58 when I was called before the nurse (no sign of any pre diabetes) but when measured again, a year later, we had got it down to 40........ and I’d lost six inches from my waist.  I think I’ve lapsed a wee bit since then and need a reboot and to appreciate that it is a ‘for life’ thing. As Mike says weight loss was sensible, changing what I ate and reducing portion size.  I’ve thoroughly enjoyed cooking meals something I have never done up to now.  We have used recipes from the Diabetes.co.uk website and most of the meals are very nice indeed.  By sharing my meals Valerie has lost weight too.  Increased walking with or without the dog has no doubt helped too.

 

Have a good day one and all.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

A dull but dry start to the day here in the northwest of England, unlike last nights downpour which left some of the local roads under a few inches of water and puddles stretching almost halfway across them. 

 

As its Friday, that means it will be the weekly trip to the Trafford Centre, if I have my own way, it will be the last one before Christmas! Thankfully most of the local scare still open so the place will be relatively free of kids. Sheila intends to accompany me, so I've suggested that we tackle the job separately and hopefully get done a lot sooner than is usual, we’ll see how that pans out when we get there. 

 

Later on we have James and Amelia coming round for tea, which will be nice as we haven’t seen them for a few weeks due to one thing or another. 

 

Enjoy the day, back later. 

[Kingzance]

Diet is something that doesn't appeal to me and I certainly could do with an inch or three off the waist and a stone or more not being pushed onto the lower load-bearing members. I suspect that a love of food, portion size and chef's perks are the causes as I normally only have alcohol two or three times a week and even then it is in moderation. I also recognise that exercise doesn't form part of my daily routine and should, even if in limited amounts. In my days of maritimer adventure, a hot engine-room, broken sleep, a very active lifestyle and nervous energy kept my figure to that of a bronzed adonis of a stick insect but coming ashore and with a wife whose catering plan was build around pies and pastries plus working in a brewery soon piled on the pounds. I can lose half a stone easily by adopting the cabbage diet but then I soon go back, there must be a middle ground that doesn't involve generating a lot of methane!

[AndrewC]

14 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

That's hilarious. 

 

If you don't mind, where is your company headquartered? People like to make fun of US business buzzwords, but I've never heard of that. 

 

The European office is (for now) London. Global head office is some many km west of your location. People Services has shown up in just a few emails and internal sites so far. There was a company I worked for in the US in the late 80s that referred to HR as "The People Place", so the idea isn't new. We seem to have an annual reorganisation and rebranding of departments. I'll have been there 10 years in Feb and I think I've had about 20 job titles and at least a dozen department names. 

 

AndyID: I've got a lot of fond memories of Spokane. From a Scout camp next to the river on a 100f weekend during Expo 74, to being there for a job interview at KHQ in May 80 (I think you can guess what happened then),  to roller skating through Riverfront park. 

 

Good moaning all from the boring borough. Neighbours gathering animals 2 by 2 at the moment. My last day of work for the year. Coffee to hand, watching the clock, everyone else seems to have buqqered off already.

 

Over the past 2 days my Ring doorbell has paid for itself. 3 sets of chuggers and a pair of JWs conveniently ignored. 

 

Looking forward to Sunday's Great Christmas Adventure. Golden Arrow Pullman Christmas dinner @ Bluebell. 

 

That's it from me for a while. Enjoy the day. Have a great Christmas (other festivals available) 

Edited December 20, 2019 by AndrewC

[Ref44]

A new experience of PC gone mad. A certain all embracing online emporium has just delivered a brace of 3/16 inch reamers. The driver required proof that I am over 18 (only 45 years beyond that stage); if you know what a reamer is, it suggests you know how to use one! I despair.

[Happy Hippo]

I have just been informed that I am to accompany the Obergrumpenfuhrer for a flu jab.

 

Initial thoughts were that I would  just drive her there and back, but apparently I am supposed to get one as well.

 

I can utilise the drive out to get my glasses into the opticians to replace a 14 BA screw and nut with a proper shouldered bolt whose predecessor fell out of my driving glasses (I have two pair) about a week ago.

 

Then I have to clean the carpet, a task I'd put off from yesterday.  My attempts to brush out the muddy deposits failed, and if truth were told, this operation probably exacerbated the carpet status from 'Could do with a quick clean'  to 'Clean me now or else'.

 

Perhaps the Vax might develop a technical fault that requires removing to the garage......... And putting on the bench, which would obviously need tidying first, and then some of the unfinished jobs would need to be sorted out first......  You get the drift?

 

 

 

 

 

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Wet and dismal here this morning but predicted to be gone by lunchtime, we'll wait and see. I have managed to keep my BP below about 120/70, still a bit high but not dangerously so. My niece was telling me that it was the BP medication that was largely responsible for my brothers kidney problems. It was when I was taking Ramopril that I had a kidney stone so I'm glad that I decided to stop taking it.

40 minutes ago, Ref44 said:

A new experience of PC gone mad. A certain all embracing online emporium has just delivered a brace of 3/16 inch reamers. The driver required proof that I am over 18 (only 45 years beyond that stage); if you know what a reamer is, it suggests you know how to use one! I despair.

Did you offer to demonstrate what a reamer does?

[leopardml2341]

It's tipping it down, I don't have a waterproof coat with me and I have to walk to pub after work.

[jamie92208]

Good morning to one and all. It's sunny here now but it has rained most of thd morning so far.  I've been and got my hair cut by Veronique, then headed for a large shed near a railway line.  No trains were seen but various nuts bolts and adhesives were bought.  A cup of tea is now being drunk.  I will then be headi g for the shed to glue the next two boards on the shutter.  Hopefully I'll get the remaini g two done this afternoon and it can dry overnight ready to be trimmed to size.  

 

We are heading for our nearby bar for a meal tonight and not a lot else is planned.

 

Beth does seem to be slowly getting there with her diabetes. She is going into hospital in the new year for 3 nights with intensive monitoring and instruction to be had.  It was interesting to hear the new Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle talking about diabetes this morning while I was driving.

 

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

 It is raining, appears to have been raining and I suspect will continue to do so for a while. Our journey back from Enfield yesterday was via side streets in Enfield to avoid a blocked A10 and a sat nav suggested diversion towards Chelmsford  to avoid what appeared to be traffic jams on the A127 and A13. 
 I have been given a task today of creating space in the freezer for items being delivered later today. We won’t need to buy sprouts as our neighbour bought too many and gifted us the excess. I think the only trip to a shop for the next week will be on Saturday to collect a dress Aditi took to the dry cleaners at Morrison’s on Canvey Island.  This is the posh frock she wore to the wedding in the Lake District last weekend. 
Tony

[81C]

Morning Campers 

P!ssatating here 

Missed yesterday on here waiting for the contracts to be exchanged spending hours on the phone it didn't happen hopefully it will today.

slapped #rse turned up here yesterday and said why haven't you told me about the move a war of words ensued  she went rapidly out the door .

I'm off  out with my Czech friend today for lunch hopefully that might move on, last night a lady from Horsell Common "War of the Worlds" land befriended me

I have spoken with her today she is charming and seems interested .

The Bimbo that latched on to me Monday has been warned off she was a scammer, ladies don't come on these dating forums then show themselves half naked

on what's-app a bit like a blob'o'gram it put me off my dinner last night.  

Phil isn't a reamer a pack of photo coping paper. 

Enjoy the rain I need to get changed  Ivor longmember  

[southern42]

' morning all from red dragon land.

 

Some photos from last weekend at Haigh Hall Woodland Park with the family (10 of us in all).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the Christmas Tree in the quadrangle where we all eventually caught up to have a very welcome cuppa in the ice cream(!) parlour.

 

A truly wonderful walk if a tad on the (bitter) cold side.

 

Off to do the Christmas cake now.

 

________________

Best wishes to all

Polly

[BoD]

54 minutes ago, leopardml2341 said:

It's tipping it down, I don't have a waterproof coat with me and I have to walk to pub after work.

 

If you get wet on the outside you need to drink at the pub to counterbalance it otherwise you will shrink unevenly.

[Tony_S]

 

Aditi’s Canadian hat was very useful last weekend. Canadian, as in purchased from quayside craft fair in Sept Iles, Quebec.

Edit. Photo from Keswick last weekend not Canada .

 

Edited December 20, 2019 by Tony_S

[Kingzance]

46 minutes ago, southern42 said:

' morning all from red dragon land.

 

Some photos from last weekend at Haigh Hall Woodland Park with the family (10 of us in all).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the Christmas Tree in the quadrangle where we all eventually caught up to have a very welcome cuppa in the ice cream(!) parlour.

 

A truly wonderful walk if a tad on the (bitter) cold side.

 

Off to do the Christmas cake now.

 

________________

Best wishes to all

Polly

Nice ones Polly, I particularly like the second one.

[Tony_S]

Aditi took this photo (north end of Lake Bassenthwaite) on Sunday lunchtime. 

Tony

[leopardml2341]

43 minutes ago, BoD said:

 

If you get wet on the outside you need to drink at the pub to counterbalance it otherwise you will shrink unevenly.

my thoughts exactly, and indeed it is a saving grace......

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from LBG where it is currently dry, a respite from the earlier torrential rain that was washing the streets of Sidcup this morning. Today promises to be my last working day of the year; I believe all the year end stuff is dealt with now, but I won't count on it until I hear the accounts are signed...

 

Now there is all the other work that I was supposed to have got done before year end overran.

 

HR - at least one accountancy firm starting referring to Human Capital. In my experience it seems to be a department that only ever expands in size; business doing well? better take on more HR staff to recruit and look after them; business doing poorly? better take on more HR staff to deal with the whole downsizing/redundancy/redeployment process. I think there were 4 people in London H R when I started working here. There are now nearly 20. We haven't increased staff numbers 5 fold.

 

 

[woodenhead]

21 hours ago, Barry O said:

Got told off! Fell asleep rwice in the MRI.....

 

 

17 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Inconceivable.

 

CT scan sure. MRI? Not in my experience.

I've managed it too, I've had a couple of MRIs on my head and neck and I find myself zoning out.

 

It may be noisy but it has a hypnotic beat, I did think one I might have been dancing and tapping my fingers along to the beat.

 

Stress news - Christmas is on, I have resolved the fridge freezer issue, it has now been 36 hours at a stable 2 degrees in the fridge so turkey will be purchased later today and going in it.  Work stress is coming down fast, technical jargon coming - I have been waiting on a new SQL server farm but my company are making a real meal of it, we an IT firm so there are many departments who each have their finger in an element of the pie - they expect me to know who does which bit and I don't because it's been 5 years since I last did all this setting up and things change don't they.  Anyway my colleague suggested we just do the new development on our existing out of support server because it's better to have something than nothing when the project deadline is looming.  

 

So yesterday we began setting up a package to call data from an API and by this morning I have successfully sent the request into the remote server, got back an XML file and stuck the results into SQL Server.   That is the hardest bit of the whole process, it needs tuning, it needs some loops and processes to handle all the different extracts we have to do but at least I know that I have a solution that will work.

 

As I now feel back in control of things again I can relax and think about Christmas and some time off.

[PeterBB]

On 14/12/2019 at 14:29, KeithMacdonald said:

 

Was that the one at Double Hedges in Bulford village?

 

Was for the Amesbury & Bulford Camp Light Rly (LSWR).  Still visible on Google Street View:

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.1885451,-1.759487,3a,75y,43.93h,98.38t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1soagZUTJogXG0LzvRSLTDlQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

 

Not to be confused with the Stonehenge Railway

http://www.sarsen.org/2013/03/the-stonehenge-railway.html

Yes, but it looks a lot different now.  Thanks for the information.

[New Haven Neil]

KZ, you don't need a barmy diet - 'reasonable' portions not starvation as that doesn't work - your body just adapts to the lesser intake.  Eat less of the things that sneak sugar - and therefore the excess of which is turned into fat - into your system - carbs!  Eat proteins, meats fish eggs, the fat is not the cardiac killer it used to be made out to be, modern research has proved the 70's and 80's so called healthy diet to be anything but.  Read/research Dr Jason Fung, very interesting, you don't have to be diabetic to take advantage of the diet.

[Gwiwer]

Phew!!!

 

Balcombe Tunnel flooded meaning no trains running between Three Bridges and the Sussex coast;

Wires down at Willesden Junction closing all Overground routes via West London and North London Lines;

Epsom landslip meaning no trains south of Ewell West;

Worplesdon landslip meaning the line between Woking and Guildford is blocked;

South-of-Guildford landslip meaning nothing running between Woking and Havant;

Someone parking their car beneath a train at Wokingham meaning nothing running west of Ascot nor on the GWR cross-Surrey line.

Industrial action across the SWR network

Ascot races

Shopping rush

Christmas getaway in full swing

 

Finally home for lunch and a bit of a rest!  I'll be back later when things have calmed down a bit

 

 

[roundhouse]

2 hours ago, leopardml2341 said:

It's tipping it down, I don't have a waterproof coat with me and I have to walk to pub after work.

Come rain shine or whatever, a walk to the pub will be worth it

[roundhouse]

16 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

Phew!!!

 

Balcombe Tunnel flooded meaning no trains running between Three Bridges and the Sussex coast;

Wires down at Willesden Junction closing all Overground routes via West London and North London Lines;

Epsom landslip meaning no trains south of Ewell West;

Worplesdon landslip meaning the line between Woking and Guildford is blocked;

South-of-Guildford landslip meaning nothing running between Woking and Havant;

Someone parking their car beneath a train at Wokingham meaning nothing running west of Ascot nor on the GWR cross-Surrey line.

 

 

 

No trains between Reigate and Guildford either so landslip must be just south of Guildford before the junction.